Letters to the Editor
ELYDOG
Published Letters: 712 Editor's Choice: 52
-
Content of Character
[Read the article: Gender lessons]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Martin Luther King's line about judging people by the 'content of their character' not the color of their skin (or gender) is a good guideline on how to handle issues like this.
Hillary Clinton was a very conservative candidate, allied with the corporate DLC faction in the Party. This faction had run Gore and Liberman and Kerry, and steered the Party away from populism and any kind of direct confrontation with Bush's politics. They were the braintrust behind Clinton I's first presidency, an extension of Reaganism in a Democratic guise.
Hillary explicitly agreed with McCain several times in this campaign, attacking Obama on 'experience' and the 'gas tax holiday' and on attacking Iran. I.E. if you make your judgments by 'identity' poltitics, then you will vote your color or sex or age without thinking. You will not judge by the content of character...or of politics. Hillary started to sound like McCain Lite. And then she borrowed Republican 'smear' tactics against Obama on issue after issue after issue.
When Geraldine Ferraro said that Obama was using his ethnic identity to foil critics, everyone laughed. Being black is no 'boost'"! In fact, as you look at the electorate, the more conservative Democrats were supporting Hillary ... explicitly because she was white. You didn't hear hardly anyone say they wouldn't vote for a woman on the other hand.
Run women, OK, but not Margaret Thatcher, please.
-
Farakhan
[Read the article: Psycho Christians and the media]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Actually, Farakhan makes more sense than Hagee & Co., but he's also the product of an oppressed minority. I.E. Farakhan poses no danger to the U.S. or the world, while Hagee, as part of the ethnic majority, and close to Republican centers of power, does.
Simple-minded equivalencies like Kamiya's don't wash. Which is one way liberals feed into the 'mainstream' media myths. And the Farakhan one is a whopper.
-
Marriage is doomed
[Read the article: The monster snoring on the Serta]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Middle class men who talk about sex in magazines are sad actors. They bemoan the lack of sex in their lives, while still being married.
Grow up. You made your choice. Women, I think, are by hormones not the same as men sexually, especially into middle age. This is a fact. 'Love 'em' or lose 'em.
If 'sex' is what is supposed to hold marriges together, then marriage is doomed. Maybe 'sex' is the only reason men get married? Doomed, too. Combining finances? Only when you don't have enough money to live alone. Friendship? Most people have friends. Close companionship and 'love'? If it is not this, the marriage won't last. And if you're tired of the 'closeness' - tired of being locked in the house-closet with someone who's virtues are less and less attractive as the years go by?
Doomed.
-
Elephant Man must be a Republican?
[Read the article: Psycho Christians and the media]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]While I don't agree with the theory that AIDS was created to infect African Americans, conditions that allow AIDS to spread - poverty, drug use, lack of health care and lack of knowledge, are very present in the black community. As such, AIDS is more dangerous to them than your normal Republican far suburb. Which is why Republicans don't give a damn about it.
There is plenty of evidence than 'benign' neglect of poverty - since the '60s and the war on poverty - shows American capitalism will NEVER solve the issue of poverty. And that, incidentally, is a mostly white issue. Again, Republicans don't give a damn about that, and many Democrat leaders don't care either. Which is why for almost 50 years it has been ignored.
There is also plenty of evidence that drugs like cocaine were made available from government sources, especially in the ghettoes, during the contra war against the Nicaraguan government. Police in Watts and South Central don't mind the gang-bangers killing each other, as long as it doesn't spill out of control much. All part of keeping poor people in their place.
So while the theory of 'infection' is wrong, the general perspective of seeing American capitalism for what it is - racist and uncaring - is absolutely on the mark. And that is the real point of Rev. Wright.
And that is why Rev. Wright is far different from Hagee and Parsley, who want to MAINTAIN poverty and misery in the black community - and incidentally in the poor white community, and feed people religious nonsense instead of good food.
-
Let's see ... statistics
[Read the article: Fun and games with inflation numbers]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The CSI undercounts inflation...
The unemployment index undercounts unemployment.
The poverty rate underestimates poverty.
The GDP overcounts production.
Wouldn't you say that somehow all these figures make the economy look better than it is? And 'how' could that be?
Isn't our government a paragon of accuracy?
If we were talking about Soviet statistics, everyone would go, "well, you know, their jiggered." But ours? No chance of that.
-
UAW run by Troglydytes
[Read the article: The United Auto Workers vs. California]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]The UAW originatetd in a heroic period in the 30s, with leaders like Walter Ruther and mass sit-ins. Workers were shot by cops and thugs in Detroit to bring in the Union.
Then there were the 'good' days, when the U.S. automobile industry dominated the world...in the era of cheap gas. In this period, a very conservative faction of Social Democrats took over the UAW, cold warriors to the last.
The leaders that started the UAW are not the people that run it now. The present leadership inherited the union from the 'stand pat' bread & butter unionists of the 60s-70s, and follow that philosophy. Which is why they are unable to look at the real world and help management not drive the auto industry over a cliff. Which management did.
Bread and Butter unionism only works when the only issue is ... bread and butter. This is another sad day for what remains of the U.S. labor movement.
-
The Government Assassinated King
[Read the article: Controversy brewing over King statue]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]... and controlling his legacy is just part of the process of really burying him. It's not just who pulls the trigger, or who aimed the guns, its who controls the investigation, and then who controls the history.